Peace activist Guy Djoken is the Executive Director of the UNESCO Centre for Peace, based near Washington,DC.

Even as a child, Mr Djoken was aware of the consequences of living under a repressive political system: his father was the mayor of his hometown in Cameroon until authorities made him a political prisoner. He recalls visiting his father in jail and never knowing why he was there.

Mr Djoken became an activist at college in Cameroon and joined a movement to bring greater democratic reforms to his homeland and to all of Africa. Many of his friends and fellow activists were jailed; some disappeared or were killed. Djoken himself left the country following a warning by government authorities, and he later received a visa to travel to the United States from Ivory Coast.

In the US, he became involved with the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) after approaching the organisation about resolving a racial incident in Frederick.After seeing how efficiently its members worked, he decided to volunteer, and later became the local president.